Meet the mightiest builders on Earth and get to know why corals need our help through the new educational kids comic, ‘Coral Heroes’. Illustrated by Bernhard Speh and published by SECORE International, readers join the coral kids ‘Al’, ‘Samy’, ‘Jo’ and ‘Bran’, as well as the unique ‘Doc Kraken’ through two lovingly drawn tales – one of reef ecology and the other of a mystic night dive.

The comic’s aim is to equip children and teenagers with knowledge about coral reefs and why they are threatened, potentially setting the premise and foundation for a future generation of decision makers, practitioners, conservationists and environmentally conscientious citizens. “We want to spread the word how precious coral reefs are, what a wonderful underwater world they thrive in and how fragile their status is these days,” says Dirk Petersen, founder and Executive Director of SECORE. “Giving coral reefs a future, the claim of our organisation, includes reaching out to the young generation; the ones that will see if our joint efforts will eventually be successful.” The comic magazine Coral Heroes aims at educating kids on coral reef ecology, mainly addressing ages 8 to 12 years, whilst having fun!

The award winning illustrator, Bernhard Speh, who brilliantly brought Coral Heroes into life has explored many coral reefs as a diver himself: “I am enthralled by the colorful and often bizarre inhabitants of the diverse coral community. They are alive with inspirations and stories, which we just have to marvel at. The more I get to know about this spectacular and also fragile underwater world, the more fascinated I am.”

Coral Heroes can be downloaded at http://www.secore.org and is freely available for any institutional education purposes, or just for fun. So far, an English and a German version of the comic has been produced. Both can be downloaded via the links below:

All kinds of teachers, zoo or aquarium tutors, scoutmasters and others are invited to use Coral Heroes. An additional presentation about coral reef ecology can also be provided as a helpful background resource for compiling a lively lecture about coral reefs.

I hope you enjoy reading and learning from this comic as much as I did.

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